User:RJ Gordon

I intend to write a brief note here to give some vague idea of my standpoint on some issues potentially relevant to edits I may make.

I do not intend to make regular edits. I was recently motivated to create a "wikipedia account" by my dissastisfaction with the neutrality of the "Ricardians" article, and the poor tone and Guardianista-style writing of the "Edward VIII" page.

I am British. I am a Unionist, and consider myself to be a Tory of a sort. The only political organisations that I have ever joined or actively supported before are the Free Tibet Campaign and the Democracy Movement (a eurosceptic group). I may vote for the Conservative Party or UKIP at the next election; I do not think that there are any other parties that I would consider voting for in the UK at present. My chief (top 3) political priorites are probably, doing something about the EU, bringing back hereditary peers, and either bringing back the (recently abolished) Scottish regiments or cutting taxes. I am sympathetic to nationalism, though I do not believe it can be considered the be-all and end-all of all things - and I am a general constitutionalist, monarchist, and traditionalist before a nationalist. I am not interested in racial theories in general, considering that the races of mankind were not separated long enough to develop major evolutionary differences, and citing a lack of evidence suggesting any substantial racial differences (in anything but physical characteristics) not explicable by cultural/environmental conditions. I consider it a fallacy to ignore the obvious truth of the existence of cultural differences; but obsession with such matters is, in my view, as likely to damage the brain as slavish obedience to political correctness.

(the above notes on race take prominence as I have just entered into an argument about the (possibly accurate) accusation of racism against Edward VIII. Likewise, the notes on nationalism because of my criticisms of an apparent attack on Unionism in the article on UKIP).

My principal subject matter is likely to be political and historical, mostly concerning UK matters. I may also edit articles on art, music, literature, and some other fields. My favoured writing style may be ascertained by reading "The Thirteenth Century" by Sir Maurice Powicke, from the Oxford History of England (superseded recently by a New Oxford History).

I am motivated to make edits because wikipedia is increasingly widely read, and therefore factual errors, and assertions which have wormed their way into articles, which appear on wikipedia, have a danger of becoming "common knowledge".